Boost to indigenous development of helicopters, says HAL boss
BENGALURU:
In yet another fillip to the country’s defence indigenization programme, the 300th Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH-Dhruv) rolled out from the HAL hangar here on Tuesday.
Speaking on the occasion, R Madhavan, CMD, HAL, said, “The evolution from ALH Mark-I to Mark-IV has been phenomenal and is a boost to the indigenous design and development of helicopters.”
The roll-out certificate of the 300th helicopter was handed over to GVS Bhaskar, CEO, Helicopter Complex, by YK Sharma, Additional Director-General (South Zone), Directorate General of Aeronautical Quality Assurance (DGAQA).
Currently, HAL is producing 73 ALHs for the Army (41), Navy (16) and Indian Coast Guard (16). Of these, 38 ALHs have already been produced.
Light Combat Helicopter
On the occasion, the ground run of the Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) was carried out. The LCH was piloted by Gp Capt (Retd) Hari Krishnan Nair S, Chief Test Pilot, and Gp Capt (Retd) CG Narasimha Prasad, Senior Flight Test Engineer of Flight Operations, Rotary Wing.
S Anbuvelan, Executive Director, Helicopter Division, Wg Cdr (Retd) Unni Pillai, Executive Director (Flight Operations, Rotary Wing), and V Sivasubramanian, General Manager, Helicopter Division were present on the occasion.
